


Into Dawn, Into Dusk

by Clorixi



Series: Going Into It Backwards [2]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Story Series | Digimon World Series, Digimon World Series
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Soul Bond, and they're still roommates..., cartoon violence, hating loop swamp as a character trait, still not tagging all the digimon, the horrors of paperwork
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23624305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clorixi/pseuds/Clorixi
Summary: It was incredibly bold of Sayo to declare herself and Koh tamer partners when normally the paperwork for that sort of thing took a week at minimum to be processed. Never mind the fact that there technically wasn't even proper paperwork or even a precedent for a cross-team partnership in the first place...Luckily, that problem pretty much immediately solved itself. Sort of. There are a couple bumps to deal with, but they'd handle it somehow.
Relationships: Kou | Koh/Sayo (Digimon)
Series: Going Into It Backwards [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700542
Comments: 9
Kudos: 26





	1. The Monthly Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> whoops here's that sequel. This story is going to be hella light-hearted since we're over the whole brainwashing hill, and also because my goodness all i really want right now is some soft fluff.

The Union Meeting room was a rather boring looking room. The room’s decor drenched the room in a feeling of business: A large rectangular table with chairs pushed in neatly alongside it, a flat screen hung from the north wall of the room, and a little projector that hung from the ceiling. Occasionally, a smaller table would be brought in and loaded with little snacks and drinks, usually pastries and coffee. Snack days were the only saving grace of the meeting room; they turned mind-numbing planning into ‘mind-numbing chatter, but with snacks’.

It seemed that today was not a snack day. Chief Julia of Night Claw glowered at the space the little table was usually at with supreme annoyance. “He lied to me,” she grumbled.

Her digimon partner chuckled. Armor clanked as ChaosDukemon attempted to lower his body into one of the chairs without damaging it. The chair creaked ominously, making him pause and suspend his bulk above it. As he considered the chair, he said, “I doubt Reigo lied about the pastries on purpose.”

“He got my hopes up, talking about how that silver-tamer girl from Light Fang was making her lemon bars.” Evidently, the heavenly bars had made an appearance at a tournament after-party some time ago, and had become a legend of sorts around the Union. The tamer in question was known to be a little eccentric about when she would make them, making the lemon bars a highly prized commodity. There was even an online message board dedicated solely to rumors and sightings of said bars.

Not that Julia herself had ever visited the board. She’d only heard about it from her formally trusted second-in-command Reigo, who was getting demoted the second she got out of this meeting.

ChaosDukemon finally deemed the chair sturdy enough to accommodate his bulk, and settled down gingerly. The chair wobbled a few times, but ultimately held.

The door swung open then, and Glare pushed into the room with an apology about being late. His words cut off and he stopped dead when he noticed where Julia had her attention focused. His eyes narrowed. “I thought Risa was making her lemon bars for today.”

Ophanimon bent down from where he was still blocking the entrance so she could peer over his shoulder and made an ‘oh’ noise. “Did I forget to tell you? Poor Risa was feeling out of sorts and couldn’t make them.”

Glare stared at the empty spot.

“…We could always cancel this meeting and reschedule for next week.” Glare said.

“Next, next week,” Julia countered. “It could take more than a week for that girl to not be contagious anymore.”

“That’s too long to wait. I’m fine with risking it for lemon bars.”

ChaosDukemon cleared his throat pointedly. “I thought we were here for the monthly meeting, not for snacks.”

Julia groaned, but moved to sit next to him at the table. “There’s no rule saying we can’t be here for both. And it’s no longer ‘the monthly meeting’, it’s the bi-weekly meeting, where we talk about nothing but construction logistics and concrete prices and rebar in circles until we all die. The pastries were the only silver lining.”

ChaosDukemon seemed to puff up in his armor, affronted. “Construction logistics are important to the restoration efforts in Sunshine City.”

Glare held up a hand in a gesture of peace. “We know, and we appreciate how seriously you’ve taken it. But, for us humans with limited mental capacity for math, it can be… a bit tedious, in long stretches. Julia and I are much more suited for planning and operating field work than planning architecture.”

Julia grinned. “Well, I have good news in that case. There is at least one thing we can discuss that isn’t concrete, which I propose we dedicate today’s meeting too immediately. What are your thoughts on the Sync Initiative?”

She had the distinct impression that Ophanimon had lifted an eyebrow under her visor. “An ambitious idea, that one. I like ambition.”

“Well, there’s one yes already.” Julia said. “I’m also in support of it. I think that this is exactly what we need to prevent another Chrono Egg incident from occurring.”

“We would need to be very careful in who we select as the first members of the Initiative.” ChaosDukemon tapped pointedly at his papers on the table. “It could make or break the project.”

“Be careful?” Julia replied. “We already have the formal request for partnership between a Light Fang and a Night Claw tamer. Surely we should consider those two as the flag-ship members of the Initiative.” 

Glare crossed his arms. “They do seem like the obvious choice… But we shouldn’t let our desire to find a quick solution make us jump into selecting the first pair on the table. There could be a better option once we actually examine the potential candidates.”

Julia smiled wryly. “I’m not sure they’re going to wait for us. They formed a partner bond before they even filed the paperwork. Most tamer teams don’t even bond until a few months into their partnership.” 

“I share in Chief Glare’s concerns.” ChaosDukemon said. “Both parties have been unsuccessful in the past when trying to form partnerships, and that was with people they already got along with.” 

“That is true,” Ophanimon conceded, “but they formally applied to become official partners of their own volition. I say we place faith in their ability to assess their compatibility.”

He gave her a sharp look. “You just think it would be interesting to see what happens.”

“That, too. There hasn’t been a cross team partnership before.” Ophanimon twisted her lips in a sly smile. “Plus, of all tamers, it’s _those_ two.”

He sighed, but otherwise conceded with a nod. “I suppose if we have to pick a tamer from each team, those two make as good a starting point as any.”

“So we’re all in agreement.” Julia stood up, stretching her arms in front of her with a groan. “We’ll go forward with the Sync Initiative. Now we just have to tell the happy couple.” 

Glare and Ophanimon followed suit. “Maybe we should send Risa a care package,” Ophanimon mused. “A little holy pick-me-up to speed along her recovery.”

“Wait, we’re not done here—“ ChaosDukemon started shuffling through his papers.

Ophanimon stretched three sets of her wings out and gave them a little flap, upsetting the papers and sending some of them flying off the table. ChaosDukemon cried out and tried to catch them as they fell away. “Oh, whoops,” she said with absolutely no remorse. “Sorry, I forget to watch these things.” She fluttered them again, creating more gusts. “Oh no! I’m so clumsy today!”

“This is highly unprofessional of you,” ChaosDukemon huffed, snatching his papers and holding them to his chest plate protectively. “And you two!” he snapped, pointing his free hand at the two chiefs. They were halfway to the exit. “We are not done! We need to go over the cost analysis of the Monochromon’s report and compare it to the Vermilimon’s report to check for any inconsistencies.”

Glare and Julia stopped and glanced at each other. “We can totally outrun him.” Julia said.

Glare ignored ChaosDukemon’s offended splutters. “He’s almost three times our size, we could not outrun him.”

“We can try anyway.” Julia raised her hand. “All in favor of adjourning this meeting?”

Three ‘ayes’ rang out. ChaosDukemon bellowed out a furious nay.

“The ‘ayes’ have it! This meeting is over!” There was a rush for the exit as ChaosDukemon attempted to free himself from his chair, which had warped and gotten stuck to his body while he was sitting.

“It is not over! Get back here, all of you, and be the professionals you pretend to be! Julia! Julia!!!”

~ ~ ~ ~

Two weeks after they submitted a formal request for partnership, Sayo received a message telling her and Koh to assemble in the administration room. Koh read the message over her shoulder and said “Well, that’s a carefully neutrally-worded message.”

“It’s not an outright no.” Sayo replied. “Plus, this could be about something else entirely.”

Koh gave her a flat look. She shrugged. “It’s unlikely, but possible.”

“Ah!” Koh mussed his hair with both hands, sending it into total chaos. “Why am I getting nervous about it now?! When we submitted the papers I felt fine! Cool! Confident, even! Now, I’m gonna walk in there and puke right in front of Chief Julia. No words, just _bluuuurgh_.”

“Don’t do that.” Coronamon popped his head over the back of the sofa where he was sitting with Usagi. “You’re gonna give the rest of us a bad image.” Koh stuck his tongue out at him.

“You don’t need any help to look bad.”

“Hey!”

“Alright, don’t work each other up.” Sayo got off the couch and stretched her arms up over her head.

“How are you so calm about this?” Koh asked. “Give me the hot tips.”

“Well, first off, have a non-expressive face.” Sayo said. “Secondly--“ she reached out and grabbed his hand in hers. Koh looked a little surprised, but smiled and held it firmly. The moment he noticed that her hand was shaking ever so slightly, he glanced down at it and barely murmured “oh”.

“Secondly,” she started again, “don’t actually be calm at all.”

He gave her hand a little squeeze that she returned. “In that case, let’s just be nervous together.”

“As cute as that is, shouldn’t we get going already?” Agumon and Kumatora were both lingering by the transporter. Agumon pointed at them, continuing, “There’s no way you’ll be denied, anyway, so you’re just wasting time worrying.”

“Man, can we just bring those two with us?” Koh said. “They’ll actually be soothing, unlike our cores.”

Twin sounds of protest rose from Usagi and Coronamon. Sayo eyed them, saying “Well… There’s no specific rule saying we couldn’t…”

“No way!” Usagi cried out and flung herself into Sayo’s knees, clinging to them. “You’d replace me so easily, your first digimon partner?! How faithless! How cruel!”

“How dramatic.” Sayo pat her head. “Of course I’m joking. Come on, you two, digivice time.” She lifted her digivice from around her neck and pointed it at Kumatora. Hana obliged by scooting past and intertwining her arm with his. She saluted as the inky blue light engulfed them.

“I, for one, am looking forward to not having to walk everywhere,” she said as she returned to data form.

Patamon dropped from… somewhere, though Sayo wasn’t quite sure where he had been, and landed on Agumon’s head. “This is going to cut into my flying practice,” he grumped. The two of them faded into peach light and zipped into Koh’s digivice. He patted at it, saying, “I’ll make sure you still get plenty of practice buddy.”

Koh stepped up to the teleporter, took a deep breath, and turned around to face Sayo.

“Well… Shall we?”

~ ~ ~

They’d been more than prepared to see Chief Julia and ChaosDukemon, but the additional presence of Ophanimon and Chief Glare was a surprise. It could’ve been residual nerves from Koh, but Sayo suddenly felt a flutter of butterflies in her stomach. Puking didn’t seem so far-fetched anymore.

Koh and Sayo shared a quick, questioning glance before stepping forward. They approached as one unit, saluting in sync with one another. “Tamer Sayo and Tamer Koh, reporting in!”

“Thanks for being so prompt.” Ophanimon replied. “I’m sure you’re both eager to know what we’ve called you in for.”

“We’ll jump straight into it.” Chief Julia waved her hand in front of her as she spoke. “In the talks following the incident, the question has come up again and again: could we have avoided the Chrono Crisis had there been better communication between Light Fang and Night Claw?”

Chief Glare spoke up, saying, “Our teams have always sought to work together in protecting the digital world, but…” he shrugged. “Maybe we let the whole rivalry thing go a little too far. It lead to significant training efforts, but it also fostered an atmosphere of secrecy between tamers from opposing teams.”

“Well, we couldn’t deny the money that the tournaments brought in.” Ophanimon said. “High profile matches between rivals are easy to promote, and those ticket sales made up a not insignificant portion of our funding. It seemed easy enough to let the rivalry thing go on unchecked."

Glare nodded. “Right. Finding a new balance there is still important. But this isn’t your concern, Koh, Sayo. We’re hoping for you both to start a new project, actually.”

This was apparently the cue Julia was waiting for. She stepped forward and crossed her arms in front of her. Subconsciously, Sayo immediately fell into a loose ‘ready’ position, arms crossed behind her back.

“We’ve received your formal request to become tamer partners. It was interesting, actually, seeing as we technically didn’t even have the paperwork for a cross-team partnership in existence…”

A rush of concern and anticipation broke through their bond. Sayo and Koh glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes. It was true that they didn’t really have a correct form to fill out, so they had… improvised. They’d gotten the correct forms from both Night Claw and Light Fang, filled them out, and stapled them together before submitting copies to both offices. 

“After careful consideration, we’ve decided to…” Julia dragged the word out with a little grin. ChaosDukemon sighed at her theatrics.

“We’re going to allow your request,” he cut in. Koh’s hand shot out and grabbed Sayo around the arm, excitedly pulling at her. The smile he flashed was blinding in its intensity. She matched it, gripping at his hand with her free one before they both let go.

Julia pouted at her digimon partner. “Aw, you could have let me tease them a little longer.” She sobered up, continuing: “It’s more than that. You’re going to be the first members of the new Sync Initiative.”

Glare took up the thread. “We’re hoping to increase communication between members of both teams. The Sync Initiative is a… test, of sorts. Traditionally, tamer partnerships have always been formed within the same team.”

Sayo nodded. “So, you want to test how a cross-team partnership would work?”

Ophanimon tapped a finger against her cheek. “We don’t doubt that we could find compatible partners across Light Fang and Night Claw. It’s more a question of working out the logistics.” She pointed her finger at them. “Where do you pick up quests? Which leader do you give weekly reports to? Where do you stay when off duty?”

“Ah.” Koh said. “So we’re going to be the test run.”

“Yup,” Ophanimon said, popping the ‘p’.

“There are some things we won’t be able to test.” ChaosDukemon said. “A concern with cross-team partnerships is how the type affinity will play out in a bond. Sayo’s omni-affinity, however, will ease most of your problems.”

Sayo frowned as Koh shook his head. “Actually, we’ve been having some trouble there,” he said.

“Omni-affinity means I can theoretically bond with all digimon,” Sayo explained, “but it doesn’t mean utilizing that bond comes easily. And Koh’s been having issues calling on my team.” The admission put a dent in Sayo’s excitement. 

Coronamon suddenly piped up. “We’re getting better at it all the time. Pretty much every training session has improvement over last time.”

“It’s just a matter of building up familiarity.” Usagi agreed. Sayo turned to flash a smile at both of them. She’d taken some of their troubles as a personal failure, but the digimon were always quick to refute that idea when they noticed her getting upset.

ChaosDukemon seemed to think about what they said, then nodded. “If you haven’t been already, be sure to record your training efforts together and report on them at least weekly. It is valuable data we can use moving forward with the Initiative.”

“Right.” Sayo nodded.

“We won’t be giving you any official missions for a week, so spend the time preparing to go back on the field. For now, you’re dismissed.” Ophanimon said. “Oh, and Koh, Sayo? We’re expecting great things from you.”

“No pressure.” Koh murmured, but he was still grinning. They both saluted and exited the admin room.

They managed to clear the exit gate before Koh swept her up in a hug. She exclaimed in surprised when he lifted her off of her feet and spun them around, laughing the whole while. “We got approved!” he crowed.

“Put me down!” she batted at his shoulders, but the effect was lost entirely due to her own laughs spilling out of her. He set her back on her feet, but didn’t let go. Koh grinned at her with every ounce of his boyish charm. “Partner.”

Sayo smiled back. “Partner.”

Two bodies rammed into them, and they went down in a heap. “Partners!” the digimon cried, chanting the word like a spell. Of course, this meant Koh had to try and wrap his arms around all of them while Sayo tried to protest but failed due to her giggles. A guard digimon nearby cleared his throat pointedly.

“Okay guys, we’re making a scene.” Sayo got out. “Come on, let me up.” It took several shoves, but eventually everyone made it back onto their own feet. Sayo did her best to ignore the gawking tamers nearby.

“Right, now that we get to start our partner career with zero dignity,”

(“Oh, like we ever had any to begin with,” Coronamon stage-whispered to Usagi.)

“-let’s get back home. I’m going to need to make some shop runs and make sure the farms are stable before we hit the field again.” She started walking off towards their destination.

Koh watched her go ahead with a grin. “Ah, there’s the famous, focused tamer I’ve heard so much about.”

“Hope you can keep up,” Usagi started forward herself, turning back to finish, “’cause Sayo won’t slow down if you can’t.”

“I’m sure I’ll manage.”


	2. You Live Like This?

“By the stars, I thought it was just because of the Crisis happening.” Usagi glared balefully up into the sun. ”How do you think they sleep with all this light?”

Kumatora nudged her with his paw. “Stop that. You’ll get sunspots.” She nudged him back, then reached to flip his baseball cap down over his eyes for good measure.

"Well, maybe it doesn’t bother them here in Sunshine, what with all these holy and fire types walking around…” 

“Koh’s late.” Hana crossed her leafy arms. “Doesn’t he know it’s rude to keep girls waiting?”

Usagi grinned at her. “Oh, but he had to go before us to clean up, didn’t he? I wonder what he needed to hide?” The smug look they shared was horrible to behold.

“It could be any number of things, couldn’t it? Boys are so odd.” Hana mused. “Something embarrassing, maybe?”

“Or he just needed to remove a month’s worth of dust.” Kumatora suddenly cut in. “You know. That built up while he was forcibly kept from home.”

They stared at him. “Man, I forgot how chatty you are as a Kumamon,” Usagi said.

“You mean catty…” Hana muttered.

“It’s not too late for me to rethink having you all out, you know,” Sayo warned. It earned her dry looks from the digimon who promptly ignored her and continued their banter. Of course, they knew full well it was an empty threat.

Despite resolving to act as a proper half of a tamer team, Sayo had simply been far too nervous to enter Sunshine City again without everyone with her. Koh sympathized, seeing as the last time she was here was not the… best of circumstances. He assured her that the Light Fang administration had taken extra steps today and made sure the entrance guards would be aware that she was coming, and with special permission for the number of digimon with her. They made sure to come in rookie forms to help keep things smooth.

Being in Sunshine City made her feel uncomfortable, and that fact made her feel irritated and further uncomfortable, because being Koh’s partner meant she would be seeing a lot more of the Light Fang base than before. She couldn’t be slowed down by petty things like PTSD and being completely on-edge and braced for a fight every time she saw a guard digimon from the corner of her eye. It was fine. She’d get over it somehow, and her choice of method was exposure therapy.

That was the purpose of today’s visit, actually. Making positive memories would help her to erase the bad ones. Plus, if they were going to be centered out of both Cities, Sayo needed to learn where things were over in Sunshine. And the most important thing that was on the goal list for today was—

“Sayo!” She felt him before she heard him, a dot of warmth in her awareness that was drawing closer rapidly. Sayo turned towards his voice, a smile starting to spread across her face, but paused when she noticed that he appeared to be… gliding?

Koh was making running motions with his legs, but his feet weren’t actually connecting with the floor at all. And there were honest to goodness wings, large white wings spread out across his back, flapping leisurely as he flew towards her. The sun caught on them and reflected, so that it looked like he was haloed by light and feathers and-

This might be what swooning felt like. That, or Sayo had heat stroke from the intense Sunshine City sun.

She blinked a couple times, hard, to try and bring herself back before she made herself look dumb gaping at him. It was on the fourth blink that she finally realized what she was actually looking at: Angemon was holding Koh in the dumbest way possible, arms held across his chest as he flew them across the square. She probably would have made fun of them, if it wasn’t for the still dazzling memory of a winged Koh dancing around her brain.

“Hey!” Koh patted Angemon’s arm when they arrived, and he was dropped to the ground somewhat roughly. “Sorry, I was dropping off some forms to Litton and she had a question, and we lost track of time.”

Coronamon poked his head up from over Angemon’s shoulder. “Nice flying, buddy! You were almost as smooth a ride as me.”

“I feel like that comment did not come out the way you meant it,” Angemon said, “but I will pretend like it was a normal compliment.” His form faded into light as he downloaded back into Koh’s digivice.

“The way to the tamer homes is over here.” Koh jabbed a thumb over to his right. “Unless you wanted to explore first..?”

Sayo shook her head. “I’d like to set up base first, and branch out from there.” She was one hundred percent treating this whole thing like she had a mission in a previously unexplored area. She decided not to think too much about why that seemed more comfortable to do.

Or, she was going to ignore it, but then Usagi ruined that by snorting and saying “Yeah, Sayo needs to have the ability to bail at any time and reset her social battery. This is quite possibly the hardest mission she’s ever had: Meet people.”

Sayo reached over and delivered a sharp, vengeful pinch to her ear. “Quiet, you.” Just because Koh already knew she wasn’t a social butterfly didn’t mean they couldn’t pretend otherwise for a little.

“Hey, it’s no worry. I already planned out short trips over a few days, so there’s no need to rush and go everywhere in one day.” Koh flashed her that disarming smile of his.

“That’s very thoughtful,” Kumatora said, since Sayo wasn’t able to.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

He led her to where the yellow transporter was, tapping at his digivice as they went. “Access code,” he said by way of explanation. He pressed a final button, and her device pinged a moment after.

They stood just in front of the warp pad, lingering as a sudden sense of awkwardness came over them. Never mind that Koh had essentially been living with her for some time now, somehow this was nerve-wracking. It hadn’t been nearly as scary to visit Dorothy or Newton’s home during their brief time as a trio, so why..?

Koh rubbed at the back of his neck. “So, see you inside?” He asked it like it was a question, like she was going to leave after he warped away.

Honestly, it wasn’t a concern without some legitimacy. Running into Chip Forest and becoming a wild girl seemed far more appealing than facing the terrifying prospect of visiting her partner’s home.

Her partner’s home, oh dear. Sayo didn’t think she’d ever get over being able to think stuff like _her partner._

She nodded tightly, and even managed a small smile. “Yup, right behind you.” She gestured for him to go ahead first. Sayo took a couple seconds for a fortifying breath, then followed.

"Wow.” she said once the last of the light faded from her vision. Koh’s home was exactly like hers in terms of layout, but that was where the similarities began and ended. Every surface had something on it: a thousand little keepsakes and bits of paper and weird decorative vases and bowls. Somehow, he had contained the stuff in such a way that kept the area from feeling cluttered or messy. Unlike her own tamer home, it looked like someone actually lived here. 

She peered curiously at the large burn mark on the orange rug under her feet. “That was my fault,” Coronamon announced, sounding weirdly proud of that fact. Koh fondly regarded the mark. “Our first digivolution. Ah, memories.”

There was a story there, but Sayo opted to save asking for later. Something far more interesting had grabbed her attention. Or rather, someone.

A Gatomon looked down at her from what appeared to be a large, modified cat tower that easily reached over ten feet into the air. Sayo had to crane her neck just to see the top of it. The digimon was maybe a third away from the very top, but it was still high up.

“Hello,” the Gatomon said. “I’m Gatomon, Koh’s navi-digimon. You must be Sayo. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Sayo gave a half-bow, feeling oddly like she was greeting a parent. “Yes, I’m Sayo,” she said, falling into the formal tone Gatomon had presented. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.”

Gatomon hummed in a way that sounded approving. “Due to your partnership, I’m going to need administration access to your digivice. If I may?”

“Of course.” Sayo lifted her digivice up towards her. Gatomon waved her tail downwards, the ring on the end of it gleaming with an internal light. Her digivice lit up in response as it picked up on the incoming data. A few more seconds, and it beeped in recognition of a new navi-digimon.

“There. It’ll take me some time to sort through the existing data, but as soon as I’m done I’ll be glad to start working as your second navi-digimon.”

“I’ll be looking forward to working with you.” Sayo waved a little, then felt dumb for doing so. Gatomon nodded, then suddenly leapt her way to the top of the tower and out of sight.

Sayo blinked upwards at where she disappeared. “I feel like I just had a job interview…”

Koh laughed. “Yup. Gatomon’s pretty serious, but she’s good at her job. I think she liked you.”

She hummed in response, uncertain of what to think of the interaction. Koh gestured to the room. “Okay, so this is the living room/den/sitting area, that way marks the kitchen, bedroom is over here—“

He led her through a quick walk of the house, pointed out the small sections where the tamer homes differed due to their personal decoration choices. His beach access, for one, was much larger than hers, and clearly far more used. His bedroom had far less pillows and blankets, and therefore appeared to be larger than hers as well.

He got nervous as they approached a shut door. Koh placed his hand on the knob and cleared his throat. “So, this room is, uh, it’s meant for,” he shook his head and threw the door open. “Ah, just, here.”

It opened up to a smaller bedroom. It didn’t have much in it: a dresser, a little bedside table, and a bed. The bedsheets were all shades of purple, and there were significantly more pillows on it than the bed in his own room. Sayo stepped into the room and immediately noticed how the floors looked much cleaner and fresher than the one just outside the doorway.

She arched a brow at Koh. “You had a room built for me?”

He flushed and shrugged. “I thought it would be a good way to… like, I guess show that you’re welcome here? I know you get tired of being social easily, so I wanted you to feel like you had a private place to be.” He frowned. “Well, as private as it gets when the tamer homes don’t have real walls, anyway.

“We were already doing tons of construction, so it wasn’t a big deal to ask for an extra room.” Koh shuffled his feet and ran his hand through his hair. “So… do you like it?”

He was caught in a hug before he even realized Sayo had moved. “Thank you.” The words were a little muffled from where she had pressed her face into his shoulder, but they still made his face flush even harder. “It’s a wonderful gift.”

~ ~ ~

(While he wasn’t looking, Sayo quickly sent a message off to Phascomon to get in touch with a contractor. There was a beachfront bedroom coming Koh’s way.)

~ ~ ~

“So, that’s basically the tour.” Koh looked around with a little frown. “Now what?”

Sayo stepped into his kitchen and opened the nearest drawer. There were measuring cups and other things she typically associated with baking inside. She grabbed a flat looking spatula and pulled it out. “I’m kinda hungry,” she said, spinning the tool in her hand.

Koh had a very peculiar glint in his eye. “Oh really? Well, in that case,” He stepped over to the fridge and pulled it open. The inside was nearly stuffed to the brim with foodstuffs. “Allow me to introduce you to what a properly cooked meal looks like.”

What proceeded to happen was, and Sayo was not ashamed to admit this, maybe the coolest Koh had ever been to her. Sayo could handle a knife fine, but Koh made her look like a bumbling fool with his precision and skill. Sayo barely managed to keep up with the amount of ingredients and pans that were in use at any one moment. The words _husband material_ came to mind, and were immediately forcibly expelled. When the blur of cooking was over, somehow an hour and a half had passed and Koh’s table was loaded with more dishes than Sayo typically saw outside of a party setting.

“I always thought you were just being fussy when you said my kitchen was lacking.” Sayo said as she peeked under the lid of a small pot. Whatever was in there smelled divine.

“I am never fussy, how dare you.” 

“Can we eat all this?” There was a mountain of rice at the center of the table that looked like it could feed five people by itself.

He eyed the food. “…Probably?”

“Well, I only had a small breakfast. We should be able to do this. A sense of competition suddenly filled the air. They sat down and tucked in. All of the food tasted amazing. Sayo wanted to cry.

By the end of the meal, not only had Sayo pretty much completely forgotten how nervous she was, but she was also pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to move again for a year. Koh wasn’t in much better shape.

“Okay,” he said from his fetal position on the couch, “maybe I overdid it a little on the cooking.”

“You think?” she groaned back. She had her back pressed up against the couch, having taken up a vigil on the floor next to him. She patted at him with her hand until Koh offered one of his own for holding. “At least we’ll die together,” Sayo said, completely serious.

“You guys didn’t have to eat all of it, you know.” The digimon were unsympathetic to their plight, and blatantly laughing at them from the kitchen. They had created their own feast of data after helping their tamers over to the couch. Sayo wasn’t really sure how they ‘flavored’ or ‘cooked’ their food, but it sounded like an absolute mess. 

“Yes we did,” Koh said, “cause leftovers are for quitters, and we ain’t no quitters.”

She tugged on his head until he weakly lifted his head to look at her. “It was totally worth it.”

“We die winners,” he agreed, looking slightly green.

Kumatora padded up to them, having finally found a bottle of tums in Koh’s disorganized medicine cabinet. He pressed two tablets into both of their free hands. “You die like morons,” he corrected.

~ ~ ~ ~

_At an unnamed point after this event…_

Gatomon and Phascomon stared at each other from across the kitchen table.

Slowly, without breaking eye contact, Phascomon reached into his container of digimin and pulled out a byte. Gatomon felt a twitch start up under her eye, but forcibly clamped it down. It wouldn’t do to be rude to her…

She shuddered.

_Her new co-worker._

The data she had examined on Sayo’s digivice had been, for lack of a softer term, a complete mess. It clearly wasn’t the tamer’s fault, either, because the oddities were in fragmented map data and questionably stored access codes. It was such a disaster that Gatomon immediately decided that Sayo’s navi-digimon must have been incompetent at best.

She was a professional, though, and so she had resolved to come into this meeting unbiased, and assume that those mistakes she had seen had been a stress induced fluke. Dark Moon City had been hit with a virus too, after all, even if they hadn’t been quite as bad off. Perhaps he had dismissed some stray data as an issue to be solved after things had stabilized.

Phascomon smacked his lips in satisfaction after a particularly crunchy digimin byte.

…That clearly was not the case. This digimon lacked even a fraction of the professionalism and grace that his Tamer had.

Apparently Phascomon was content to sit and eat in silence, because he made no attempts to start a conversation, even though this entire meeting was about getting the navi-digimon familiar with each other. If he crunched one more byte, she was going to claw his face. Gatomon wracked her brain for literally anything that she could talk about with this fool. She finally struck on what she figured would be a neutral topic.

“I understand Sayo is the nickname type of tamer. Why didn’t you get one?”

Phascomon looked confused. “What do you mean?”

Oh, this navi-mon did not have a brain. “She introduced you as ‘Phascomon’. That’s not a nickname.”

Phascomon waved his free paw in an ‘aha’ motion. “Ohhh, that’s right. You haven’t heard us on mic. Here, I’ll show you.”

He flicked his forked tail, and a little spark of energy formed at the tip of it. Gatomon felt a very conflicting feeling when she realized his method of activating his navi-protocols was almost the same as hers. Phascomon started a call with Sayo, connecting almost immediately. “Eye in the sky.” Sayo’s voice said. “What do you need?”

“Just checking in with some farm stats.” Phascomon replied, pulling up those files. Gatomon watched carefully to see where he had them stored, but their location made no sense to her at all. “Looks like the baby ‘mons have finally got the hang of the treadmill.”

“Aw,” she replied. “It was kind of cute watching them roll off of it. Anything else of note, Papamon?”

“Nope”, he said, popping the ‘p’. “Food production is stable as always, and everything is running smoothly.”

“Thanks for the report. We’ll be back soon. Try not to eat too many snacks, Muncher.”

Phascomon stuck his paw into the digimin. “You got it.” They hung up the call. He bit into another byte with relish. “So, the thing is,” he said around the food, “Sayo and I tried to come up with a nickname, but we just couldn’t pick one. So, I told her—oh,” Phascomon held out the container of digimin towards her. “Sorry, did you want some?”

“No, thank you.” She was very proud of how even her tone was.

“If you change your mind, I have plenty more. Anyway, I told her, ‘how about you just use them all?’, and that’s how we got here. For whatever reason it developed to where in person she just calls me Phascomon, and over the coms she uses a nickname.” He shrugged. “It probably won’t be long before she gives you one, so if you have a preference you should let her know.”

That made Gatomon pause. “She’d give me one?”

He nodded. “Honestly, I don’t think she can help it. Sayo seems all distant, but she dishes out affectionate nicknames like they’re on sale. You’re part of our squad now, so it’s a matter of time before you have one.”

It was an oddly nice thought, even if she chaffed at the idea of being associated with Phascomon. At any rate, her approval of Koh’s new partner went up a notch. Anyone who was patient enough to deal with a second-rate navi-digimon had her respect.

Phascomon let out a belch and pat his stomach. “This are some really good bytes. You sure you don’t want any?”

This fool, on the other hand, would have to work double-time to convince her he was worth even a small scrap of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, believe it or not, was originally only the navi-digimon meeting each other and didn’t have any of the sayo/koh content before I realized… it was insane to do that.
> 
> We finally fixed the ‘sharing a bed’ issue, which wasn’t an issue when there was an apocalypse to worry about, but now it’s a bit much. Having a private place to be in a home is to be valued and hoarded at all costs, and this isn’t just my bedroom-sharing self projecting… not at all… 
> 
> Anyway, this is the start of my Phascomon/Gatomon enemies-to-friends-to-lovers slowburn au, sorry I tricked you all but this is what the story is about now.

**Author's Note:**

> ChaosDukemon is too big for a normal human-sized chair, but by god he’s gonna make it work because you do not tower over your coworkers at the meeting, that’s just rude. 
> 
> Also even tho I didn’t like that season, I’m borrowing the Cross Wars concept of “heart of the team”, with lunamon and coronamon being their respective team hearts. This is mostly because I… just can’t keep writing scenes with 8 people in the room. So now it’s canon that tamer partners will usually only keep the core of their team actively out when on the field. Sayo and Koh were actually flexing a little when they showed up with only their cores out before they even got officially approved as partners.


End file.
